1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a chip discharging device for discharging chips generated by machine processing of a workpiece to an outside of a machine tool, and also relates to a machine tool equipped with the chip discharging device. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a chip shooter structure for guiding chips to a chip collecting box or a chip conveyer, and also relates to a machine tool equipped with the chip shooter structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description of related art sets forth the inventors' knowledge of related art and certain problems therein and should not be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art.
As a chip discharging device of this kind, conventionally, there exists a chip discharging device as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Application Publication No. 61-31642. This chip discharging device is provided with an enclosing member formed by combining a plurality of flat plates, and a chip discharging gutter having a U-shaped cross-sectional groove with angular corners and arranged below the enclosing member.
The aforementioned conventional chip discharging device is constituted by the enclosing member formed by combining the plurality of flat plates and the gutter having a U-shaped cross-sectional groove with angular corners. Therefore, there inevitably exist many corners, causing such problems that chips are easily accumulated in the corners and it takes time to clean up the chips accumulated in the corners.
The description herein of advantages and disadvantages of various features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed in other publications is in no way intended to limit the present invention. For example, certain features of the preferred described embodiments of the invention may be capable of overcoming certain disadvantages and/or providing certain advantages, such as, e.g., disadvantages and/or advantages discussed herein, while retaining some or all of the features, embodiments, methods, and apparatus disclosed therein.